I’ve talked about this before, but I really need to stress it for this post – I am not a wedding person. I don’t have the bride gene. When I see a show about picking out the perfect wedding gown, I change the channel to a rerun of Law & Order: SVU. Fluffy white gowns, seating arrangements, wedding waltzs, floral arrangements, all of that stuff that brides seem to obsess over – I just don’t care. This is probably one of the many reasons why I’m not married (that, and I’m not a baby person either). If and when I ever get married, it will not be some big thing. I’ll either elope, or go down to a court house while wearing a suit, or maybe something really, really simple with, like, barely anyone there and just a lot of food.

So imagine my surprise when I was reading even more details of Reese Witherspoon’s weekend wedding (go here for yesterday’s post about her nuptials), I found myself thinking, “Damn, that sounds really nice.” Reese invited lots of A-listers to her wedding (RDJ!), but she kept everything really down-home and Southern and the whole thing sounds really cool:

When Reese Witherspoon wed Jim Toth at her Ojai, Calif. ranch on Saturday evening, the couple was 90 miles north of Los Angeles — but the vibe of the night was a universe away from Hollywood glitz! UsMagazine.com has brand-new details on the Oscar winner’s big-time nuptials.

In a courtyard in front of the Ojai house, the Monique Lhuillier-clad actress, 35, and CAA agent Toth, 40, exchanged vows and William Goldberg wedding bands beneath a canopy.
About 120 family members and friends– including Sean Penn, Scarlett Johansson, Renee Zellweger, Tobey Maguire and wife Jennifer Meyer, Robert Downey Jr., Matthew McConaughey and love Camila Alves, Alyssa Milano, Colin Hanks, Isla Fisher and hubby Sacha Baron Cohen– were on hand for the bash.

Reverend Jimmy Bartz, of the Santa Monica church regularly attended by the couple, officiated the 20-minute service, and Witherspoon’s children (with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe) Ava, 11, and Deacon, 7, participated in the ceremony.

Matron of honor duties went to Witherspoon’s best friend Heather Rosenfield, whose little boys served as ring bearers; the star’s nieces were flower girls.

In a fitting turn for the Southern-born actress, a bluegrass band played “Tennessee Waltz” as the processional music for Toth and the kids, segueing to “Here Comes the Bride” for Witherspoon’s walk, and playing “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” during the ceremony.

Immediately following the “I do” exchange, guests retreated to a one-hour cocktail party behind the house.

Different arrangements of white, blush and lavender flowers were set up on each table in mason jars, fish catcher lanterns and antique pots. And large moss-covered pots with lavender were set up all over the estate.

When it was time for dinner, guests sat down at long tables in a fabric-lined tent behind the house. On the menu, catered by L.A. eatery Lucques: endive salad with olives and fava beans; wild striped bass with potatoes, chanterelles and garlic; mustard grilled chicken with haricort vert and herb roasted lamb with braised artichokes. For dessert? A grand wedding cake designed by Erica O’Brien, a separate table of sweet treats — and a s’mores lounge!

After the meal, guests boogied on the dance floor to DJ-spun tunes. When it was time to call it a night, revelers departed clutching gift bags with pecan currant scones from a local baker.

Says a pal of the couple, who began dating in January 2010: “They feel like they’ve hit the jackpot in this relationship!”

Okay, if and when Gerard Butler/Michael Fassbender/Ralph Fiennes wants to marry me and he really wants a big, Hollywood wedding, we’re doing it like this. I like Reese’s plan, and I would happily copy it. Now Gerard just needs to buy me a big ring. And Michael needs to rest up for the honeymoon.

Yeah…she was knocked up for her first wedding. I think this wedding sounds great….it’s really a big Southern party and that’s what a wedding should be, a big party with your closest family and friends.

Some of those A-listers are actually her new hubby’s clients, so that might explain the inclusion of so many at what was otherwise an intimate (by Hollywood standards) affair.

Sounds like a nice time and I wish them a lifetime together, but I’m of the Lainey mind-set that the timing of this is awfully convenient (they only just got engaged a couple of months ago and have barely been dating more than a year, and Reese is in need of a hit and she just happens to have Water for Elephants opening shortly) – particularly now that magically so many of the specific wedding details have found their way to People and US Weekly so quickly.

Please please please stop shilling for this woman. I am so sick of hearing about her wedding already and she hasn’t even been on the cover of US Weekly in her dress yet. Too many details, too much information, it feels very over sold (to me anyway).

I think she has done the full circle many women go through before finding the right guy.. Ryan was her wild crazy/HOT love stage.. Jake younger man but some women do an older guy..then she finds that GROWN ASS MAN .. that wants to build a life with.

good for her..

Not sure about the PR thing. if anything in my mind she wants to get pregnant and soon if she is not already. I mean she dated Jake for a few years.. this relationship went fast, but hey when you find the right person why wait. I have a friend whose parents met and were married within a month. still together happy 33 years later.

I don’t see how a wedding equals BO success. Yes she needs a hit, but so does that Rob guy outside those Twilight films. I mean do people see films because you get married or photographed walking the in the streets.

This relationships has been more public I will say that, but who knows.

I’m the marriage type, but not the wedding type either. I don’t like a lot of the stuff to do with weddings, wearing the veil, for instance. I tried to plan a wedding when I first got engaged 20 years ago but was too busy to deal with it, so we bagged it and eloped to Bermuda. Never regretted it.

got married on a beach in maui at sunset, with exactly 11 guests…..and dinner at a fab restaurant…it was perfect we all ordered off the menu
lol fresh and simple.

we’ve been married well over a decade….
worked for us.

we had a big party 6 weeks later in CA, where the rest of the friends and family came to celebrate; catered mexican, had cake again, etc.

Oh, we invited everyone to hawaii; you just know not everyone can make/afford it….that way you are not excluding, but still get the wedidng you want.

i knew i would have been too distracted to enjoy my wedding, if there were a hundred guests there….too nervous/anxious and just not fun for me.

this was great.
you can do mexico, hawaii, bali (we thought of that),italy, etc. and combine it with your honeymoon. Whoever can come, great. The important thing is that you and your spouse-to-be will be there.

lrm, we too had a small wedding — 14 people, I think, including our friend who married us and all our immediate family. We had lots of good food catered afterward, then got home early so we could fly out for our honeymoon the next morning. We later had receptions in each of our hometowns and a big party at our house for our friends. Lovely, and I think the entire thing, including honeymoon, was $5000 (15 years ago).

I did have the big fairy tale wedding. Two Italian families-350 people, but it was beautiful and felt intimate due to where we had it. I never regretted it and it was 22 years since I met hubby this week and 17 years of marriage this week. I was 25, I wanted the whole she-bang, as I was only doing it once.
For a second wedding, I think you should go small, not such a huge deal.

My first wedding was me, my ex husband, the judge, and the clerk. Needless to say, when I married my husband this time around we did the whole shebang – big white dress, veil, dad walking me down the aisle. We did keep it small though, to less than 40 people. It was exactly what we wanted and I can’t imagine ever marrying someone else.

I was reading an article about Water for Elephants (which looks great despite the Twilight guy) in EW, and they asked her if she was getting married that weekend and she said no, silly rumors, or something like that.

I’m with you, I’m loving it! all boho-chic, mossy rocks, pigs and chickens. And I haven’t quite heard of one like that before, so good for Reese. i hope there are photos somewhere…..mostly weddings bore me, but I never forget how that Sigler chick from the Sopranos had wedding cookies with her and the grooms photo on them…..